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Warhammer 40,000 Homebrew Wiki:How to Create a Homebrew Dark Eldar Kabal
This is a guide for those who wish to create their own Homebrew Drukhari Kabal, Wych Cult, or Haemonculi Coven. The Drukhari are, also known as the Dark Eldar, are an ancient xenos species, who splitted from their cousins, the Aeldari, many millennia ago. Unlike the disciplined and emotionally stoic Aeldari, the Drukhari are sadistic and wild, notorious for their act of cruelty to other races. Drukhari are also known for their acts of piracy and pillaging against numerous worlds, belonging to a variety of races, be it Humans, T'au, or others. They bring billions of slaves to their home, the Dark Realm of Commorragh, to be tortured, slaughtered, play with, and used in sick scientific experimentation and monstrous artistry. The Drukhari revels in the despair and suffering of others, for these acts, are the only way for their souls not to be consumed by the Bane of the Aeldari, the Chaos God Slaanesh. Background History The Dark Genesis : M18-M30 The origins of the Drukhari start a few century prior to the Fall of the Ancient Aeldari Empire, in a period they would call the Age of Dark Genesis amongst themselves, from M18 to M31. At this time, Commorragh was established as the primary nodal port of the Webway, growing larger with each passing decade. Away from the attention of the Aeldari leading councils, the City quickly became a refuges for those wishing to avoid attention. This leads to the formation of the Twilight Cults, hedonistic and and self-indulgent organisation that rise in power as their influence spread accross the Aeldari Empire. Formely hidden in the Webway to avoid the attention of puritains elements of their society, the Pleasure Cult spread the obsession with ever-greater acts of excess. In the Warp, the energies born from the sufferings and pleasures of the Empire merged to slowly nurture one of the Great Power of Chaos. In one apocalyptic instant, those energies give birth to the Dark Prince Slaanesh, and the Aeldari race is shattered as billions of Aeldari dies in an instant. Only the Exodites, Craftworlders and Drukhari survives, the last by hiding in the depth of the Webway. The Rise of Vect : M32-M35. In M32, as the Cults continued to control Commorragh, the half-born slaves known as Vect vows to control the Dark City, whatever the efforts and time it would take him to do so. Vect found the Cult of the Black Heart, the first organisation to refer themselves as "Drukhari" or "Dark Eldar". From them spread the fondations of the Thirteen Foundations of Vengeance, a code of dishonour that spread in the society of Commorragh. During the War of the Sun and the Moon, the solar cults controlling the stolen suns that assure powers and warmth to the Dark Realm rise to power, and declare war upon the noble houses ruling the City itself. During the War, the Cult of the Black Heart become the Kabal of the Black Heart, and is instrumental in the final victories of the Noble Houses. After this victory, Vect triggered the Imperium, by pillaging multiple worlds and stoling an Astartes Strike Cruiser from the Salamander Space Marine Chapter, into attacking the Dark Realm. Three Space Marine Chapter, lead by the Salamanders, are guided to Commorragh by Vect's manipulations, and destroy the noble houses before retreating when the implosion of the Desaderian portal annihilate most of the elements of the Imperial Navy. After this event, Asdrubael Vect become the Supreme Overlord of Commorragh. Under the tyrannic rule of Asdrubael Vect, the Drukhari would become the society they are in the 41st Millenium, divided amongst various organisations, such as the Kabals, the Wych Cults and the Haemonculi Coven. From Commorragh, the Drukhari have send countless raids against Imperial and Xenos Worlds alike to raid slaves and pillage ressources, even sometimes dragging entire planets to orbit the Dark Realm for their own amusement. The pain and sufferings that await the slaves are unimaginable by human minds, giving birth to the common saying : "Prey that they don't take you alive". However, the security of Commorragh would never be complete during those days. Deep inside the Dark City, lies Khaine's Gate, a sealed Portal between Commorragh and the Warp, started to suffer many disturbance during M41, worrying Vect enough so that a contingent of 500 Incubi Warrior would be placed before it to stand guard. But with time passing, voices started to emanate from the Gate, forcing Vect's to place specific defenses before it. Ultimately, even those defenses fails when a Daemon Host emerged from the Gate, shattered by the ascension of the Aeldari known as Yvraine in the Crucibael, the greatest of the Wych Cult Arena. In the confusion, Yvraine espace the grasp of the Kabal of the Black Heart and Daemons invade the Dark City until they are stopped by the Mandrakes and the separation of the infected realms using dimenssional technologies. The sacrified sectors are renamed the Chasm of Woe, and grow larger every decades as the Daemons continue to advance, and as slaves, warriors and territories are stopped. Commorragh, the Dark City Commorragh is a portion of the labyrinthic and intricate dimension known as the Webway entirely controlled by the Dark Eldar. It is an endless nest of architectural contradictions and spatial anomalies. Each of its estates has been over developed to such an extent that their growth has been forced into the vertical plane, the rival regions sprouting upwards like a tangle of needle-plants fighting for as crap of sunlight. Each of the spires and towers is linked to its fellows by hundreds of curved arches and strands, and crested with complex silver structures that glow with stolen energies. Its towering eyries and palaces reach both upward and downward, spiralling into the depths of captive space. With every passing year, the parasitic city seeks to devour ever more of the hidden dimension that acts as its host. However, Commorragh dispose of several recognisable district that makes navigation possible, though their numbers are beyond counting. Some are densely populated and well-known, and others are mysterious and deadly for those that travelled it. They may take the form of monster-haunted wastelands of vitreous wreckage and ossified remains, or lakes of seething poisons and screaming shadows. The latter will often have suffered dimensional breaches due to the partial or total collapse of the webway around them, and may be bombarded by the light of dying stars, or exist within fields of entropic radiation that wither living creatures to dust in seconds. Girdling the titanic central spires of the Dark City, Low Commorrag his a hotch potch of shattered ruins and scavenged glories. Once-proud fortress complexes and barter-ports spread out in all directions ,and the black and angular spires of lesser Kabals riddle their extremities with opportunistic growth. Many areas are haunted by packs of Ur-Ghuls and Khymerae,and are twisted beyond recognition by the tremendous up heavals of the Fall and the Great Rift. Their pitch-dark catacombs are prowled by far larger and uglier things than the Drukhari, for in Low Commorragh the lost and the feral thrive like carrion in a graveyard. A vast swathe of these war-torn ruins form a region known as the Sprawls.Through their bleak streets wander the Parched – cadaverous Drukhari who have fallen far from grace. These ghouls gather on the periphery of others’ fights and misfortunes, vicariously feeding on pain like freezing men flocking to a flame. Another region, known colloquially as Central Corespur, plays host to the torturous bends and falls of the acid-green River Khaïdes. Along this river race Hellions and Reavers, who compete in blisteringly fast aerial duels. The losers are sent spinning to their deaths, their dissolving corpses adding to the potency of the caustic sludge that swills around them. Further coreward can be found the mercenary district Sec Maegra, more popularly known as Null City–a nation sized shanty town permanently riven by internecine conflict on a scale akin to civil war among the lesser races. A thick mist of poisonous smoke hangs over its roofs, and with every passing minute fresh screams pierce the silence. At night, the scorched streets resound to solid-shot gun fire and the crack-spit of splinter rifles as negotiations turn sour and rivals are assassinated. Alien mercenaries can be found here in profusion,vying fiercely for the lucrative murder-contracts offered by many of the Kabal. As violent as they are, the districts of Low Commorragh are but playgrounds in comparison to the inner rings that surround the Dark City’s core. Here can be found the oldest noble houses, which have ruled their demesnes with irresistible force for millennia. Their sweeping wings and towering mansions are crested by citadels full of aristocratic Trueborn warriors, each of whom descend from one of the original orchestrators of the Fall. Among these inner rings, one of the Dark City’s ancient states has literally fallen into shadow. In Aelindrach, shadows thicken and writhe as living things, flowing in to one another and crawling up the legs of those that trespass amongst them. Here amongst the velvet domes the dreaded Mandrakes make their lairs, bathing in the darkness. The outskirts of Aelindrach giveway to the Bone Middens of the Wych Cults, where the skeletal remains of every sentient species in existence can be found, positioned in grim tableaux and mock battles by the Wyches who slew them. Beneath the core of Commorragh hang vast stalagmite-like structures that jut anarchically into the pocket-realities below the city. Inside the seinverted spires lie the labyrinthine lairs of the Haemonculus Covens. Each Coven occupies as prawling territory of cells and laboratories in which they practise their heinous crafts–spiral-edged torture pits, darklight-warded oubliettes,and galleries through which the screaming choirs of the damned endlessly echo. In many places the superstructure of these nightmare chambers contain remnants of past subjects to whom the Haemonculi have denied death through their dark science. Helical stairwells are lit by lamps sewn into the eye sockets of incautious visitors, and the bodies of countless alien species flensed in successive degrees line the walls as living reliefs culptures. The Haemonculus Covens are invaluable to the denizens of Commorragh, dealing in body modification, drug distillation and–most importantly–resurrection of dead flesh. But even the most powerful Kabalites enter the Haemonculi’s realm with caution. One of the newest regions of the Dark City is also one of the most horrific, for the abyss of sub-dimensions known as the Chasm of Woe seethes with Daemons. The warp-creatures were released when Khaine’s Gate–the long-held dam against the immaterium in the heart of Commorragh–burst open. The vile creations of the Chaos Gods tore through the DarkCity, feeding on the souls of Drukhari, mercenary and slave alike, but they were eventually corralled into the region surrounding the ruptured Khaine’s Gate. Unable to seal up what was now a ragged wound in the fabric of the webway, the Drukhari used their reality bending technologies to create a series of sub-dimensions between Khaine’s Gate and Commorragh proper, transporting dilapidated parts of the city and territories of upstart Archons into the path of the unending Daemon onslaught. In this way, the daemonic incursion is kept from ever reaching the heart of the DarkCity, but everyday dozens more pocket realities must be added to the Chasm before the surging forces of Chaos overflow and devour Commorragh from within. The Organisations of a Kabal The Kabals occupy the upper tiers of Commorragh’s power structure, defining the martial aspect of the Drukhari and maintaining a strangle hold on all aspects of the Dark City. Even the most minor Kabals consist of hundreds of Drukhari, though their territories may be confined to hidden locations and scattered hideouts. The largest Kabals comprise millions of skilled warriors. The baleful influence of these monstrous coalitions stretches from one side of the galaxy to the other, plaguing lesser civilizations and inferior races with slave raids and acts of blood-soaked piracy. In the wake of Vect’s uprising, the fickle Drukhari adopted the Kabalite system with an enthusiasm born of self-preservation. Sensing which way the wind was blowing, even the surviving noble houses reinvented themselves as Kabals. Power is no longer inherited in Commorragh, it must be fought for and taken by force. The authors of the Dark City’s fate are those who wield the sharpest minds and blades, the precarious nature of their position ensuring complacency can never take root. At the top of this hierarchy sits Vect, the Supreme Overlord, his insatiable hunger for power still carving the path for all of Commorragh. Even death cannot undermine his reign, for Vect was able to use his own murder and subsequent resurrection to eliminate his most dangerous rivals in one fell swoop. In a society as treacherous as that of the Drukhari, a single power-hungry individual soon makes enemies. It is never long before the loner finds a dagger at their throat or feels nerve-searing poison flowing through their veins. Only those affiliated to larger organisations enjoy any degree of security ; there is safety in numbers, they say, and even in the shadow haunted twilight realms of the Dark City this remains true. To kill a Kabalite is to commit a hostile action against their entire Kabal. Regardless of status, sector species, few Commorrites are prepared to make such an influential enemy without good reason, and those who do must ensure they have powerful friends of their own to protect them against the inevitable retribution. Competition for Kabalite member ship is beyond fierce, despite the varied and often violent initiation rites that must be undergone. The constant supply offresh aspirants means that the Kabals themselves enjoy a kind of loose immortality. Each has the might to make its displeasure keenly felt should it be threatened or slighted. It is unusual for an entire Kabal to be wiped out altogether. Only the Supreme Overlord can visit such a fate upon his enemies without triggering city-wideout rage or inviting punitive violence on a massive scale. Yet Vect ensures that Commorragh is eternally riven by gang warfare, and not a single night goes past in the Dark City without the streets echoing to running battles between Kabalite factions–the Archons of the Kabals do not care for the notion of peers. Though all Kabals offer a measure of sanctuary–from out side influences, at least–the true prize for the established Kabalite is to take part in a real space raid. The war with the material dimension is a never-ending campaign of extreme violence against every other sentient race in the galaxy. A successful raid offers the victors not only the twin bounties of slaves and a feast of pain, but will also do much for the political standing of those who planned and executed it. As such, successful real space raids are one of the most straight forward ways in which a Drukhari Kabal can rise to prominence over its rivals. The largest and most well respected Kabals launch raids on an almost constant basis, their sleek attack-craft descending upon one hapless world after another to plunder and enslave. It is extremely rare for an Archon to commit the warriors of their Kabal to a battle they have not already meticulously planned. Kabals employ countless spies, mercenaries and informers whose task it is to scout out potential raiding sites in exhaustive detail. Further, the Covens of the Haemonculi can be prevailed upon to provide stranger means of surveillance, be it whisper glass mirrors, flock sof invisible familiars or parasitic ally invested abductees. These services always come at a price, of course, yet a successful real space raid will normally justify the cost of such bargains tenfold. Once a raid is launched, Kabalite forces will work to keep the foe on the back foot at all times, using superior technology and local knowledge torn from the minds of captives to stay one step ahead of the enemy. Stand-up fights are never entered intovoluntarily, for the warriors of the Kabals view concepts such as valour or honour as weaknesses to be exploited. Their raiding parties will strike hard and fast where the foe is at its most vulnerable, aiming to cripple command and control structures, undermine logistics and spread terror and confusion. Should an organised response coalesce, the Kabalites will simply fade away and attack elsewhere, aiming above all else to avoid being pinned down in a war of attrition. Ambush, trickery, the turning of foes against one another, and the bloody quest for personal glory–such are the hall marks of a Kabalite hunt. Hierarchy of a Kabal Kabal High-Command *'Overlord:' The Leader of the entire Kabal. A millennia Old Drukhari, the Overlord can be of various personalities, secretive, aggressive or boasting, preferring one type of warfare to others. Most of the time, the Kabals tactics and methods are based upon the preferences, origins and taste of their Overlord, and many Kabalites will die to protect their master during a battle. *'The Overlord's Court:' Archons surround themselves with a coterie of favoured retainers and bodyguards. Depending on the personality of the Kabalite lord, these can be as varied as the tools in their torture chamber. However, certain breeds of creatures have proven to be eminently useful to Archons, and are seen frequently by their sides both within the Dark City and upon the battlefield. *'The Overlord's Retinue:' To assure his protections or other duties, the Overlord dispose of a retinue of warrior capable to protect him, and whose loyalty is assured. This can account particularly impressive Trueborn Warrior, Incubi Adepts or deadly creatures such as the Mandrakes. Shards of the Kabal A Shard is a military organisation belonging to the Kabal, headed by a subordinate Archon, and disposing of enough military power to confront an army from the lesser species. It is composed of an Archon and his own Court, with less influence than the Overlord, an Armada of Kabalites and super-heavy vessels. Each Shards dispose of a name and influence depending of its victories or reputation. Splinter of Shards A Splinter is usually composed of three to twelves units of Kabalite Warriors, each assigned to a separate Raider along heavier vehicle and attack craft. Mercenaries Along with their own warriors and vehicles, each Splinter may maintain multiple pacts with Commorragh's various mercenary organisations, with which they can supplement their number. Notorious Kabals Creating your Kabal Inspiration for your Kabal All the Kabals are power-structure part of an aristocracy ruling over a portion of Commorragh. Their goals is to augment the power and influence of the Kabal at large, and of the Overlord in a more officious manner. Though, their ways and methods to accomplish this are very different from one Kabal to another. You can choose many ways, tactics, stratagems and even traditions and rituals to personnify your Kabal. Naming your Kabal The various Kabals are named after a metaphoric description of their activities in two words. For exemple : As you can see, those Kabal's names personnify their traditions and ways by comparing them with a personnification of those traits. Once you have your Kabal main tactics and traditions define, you can choose a name that fit similarly. However, Kabals are militaristic organisations, so remember to make a name that sound relatively dangerous and menacing. Kabal's Background History Before you devellop your Kabal's attributes and motivations, you'll find it handy to write its history first, so you may know how your Kabal and its members became what and who they are. What important event, battle or period affected them and transformed them during the history of Commorragh. To help you with that, we suggest that you write a Timeline of the Kabal's story, where you can put the various events important to your Kabal with their dates. As such, you can start by choosing the Kabal's Age. Is it amongst the first created, during the Rise of Vect, around M35), a recent Kabal, created during the Age of Pain from M36 to M41, or a really recent one ,created in M42, during the Age of the Living Muse ? Remember though, the Kabal of the Black Heart is the first Kabal that was created. There can be no predecessor to it. Depending of the Age that saw its creation, the Kabals can have various origins. The Overlord's Personality Category:Dark Eldar